Novel carbon nanomaterials such as
reduced graphene oxide (rGO)
and graphene oxide (GO) can be easily incorporated into the undergraduate
curriculum to discuss basic chemistry and nanotechnology concepts.
This paper describes a laboratory experiment designed to study the
differences between GO and rGO regarding their physicochemical properties
(e.g., color, hydrophobicity, type of functional groups, electrical
conductivity, etc.). In this course, students carry out the chemical
reduction of GO using ascorbic acid, a mild and environmentally friendly
reducing agent. The differences between GO and rGO can be spotted
by the naked eye and can be further evaluated by spectroscopic methods,
as Fourier transform infrared and UV–vis spectroscopy and X-ray
diffraction. Simple and applicable in all laboratories, use of the
multimeter to measure resistance was proposed to reveal the different
electrical properties of GO and rGO. Moreover, the proposed laboratory
experiment is an ideal pretext to discuss the definition of graphene
in the context of the overuse of this term in the literature.